The town of Brunswick, Maine has started paying rent for its illegal immigrants. According to a December 2023 report to the state’s Joint Select Committee on Housing, Maine allocated nearly $3.5 million to provide apartments in five new buildings in Brunswick, about half an hour north of Portland, to 60 illegal immigrant families. All of the buildings will be available for occupancy by February, reports National Review.
Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS) is also applying $100,000 from the fund to help illegal immigrants in Brunswick, South Portland, and Lewiston with filing their asylum and work permit applications. The money will assist illegal immigrant family members to “work together to support each other’s goals and achieve long-term stability with the help of a bridging case manager/coach,” the report said.
National Review reports that in 2023, the fund’s support helped transform a South Portland property with 52 apartments, Avesta Housing’s West End II, into a housing facility for illegal immigrants. For that project, the fund also allocated “payment of their rent for up to two years until they fully navigate federal work authorization rules and secure employment.”
As for the 2024 budget, the emergency fund also afforded $250,000 to the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in the Portland area, intended to support over 1,000 illegal immigrants, as an “additional grant to support expansion of legal assistance to asylum seeking households.”
The construction, done through the Emergency Housing Relief Fund, would also guarantee “rent payments for up to two years while households navigate the federal work authorization process and secure employment.” Included in the large sum is beds and service coordination for the illegal immigrants.
